


A Final Salute

by SniperMoran



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-05
Updated: 2015-07-05
Packaged: 2018-04-07 19:21:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 582
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4275030
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SniperMoran/pseuds/SniperMoran
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Just this little one-shot thing I decided to write as a way of saying goodbye to two people that shaped my life. They were my Hanji and my Levi, so...I found this only appropriate. Also, I wanted to start writing again. What better way to start than with something terribly sad!<br/>It's really short.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Final Salute

**Author's Note:**

> To my Hanji and my Levi; we had good times, we had bad times, but you'll always be a part of my life, even if I don't want you to be.

Blond hair hid the man’s face as he stood in the rain, head hung. Behind his locks, his eyes were closed tight, fighting back the tears that he’d been holding in for so long now. He hadn’t had the courage to come here until now, and now that he was here, he felt like a titan was crushing his bones. He’d never felt so alone in their end of the world. He always knew it wouldn’t be an easy road that he traveled, but never had he thought it would be this hard. He had promised himself that he would never get too close… But here he was.  
Lifting his head skyward, the rain washed his face and mixed with the gentle tears that he was reluctantly letting free down his cheeks. Opening his blue eyes, he stared up, blinking as the droplets fell into his eyes.

“I never thought I’d be standing here, at the end,” he whispered to the sky, his voice shaking slightly as his knees were. “Or, rather…I had come to think that I wouldn’t be standing here alone,” he added, taking a deep breath.

He stood there in silence a little while longer, just listening to the pitter-patter of the rain droplets, feeling the cool water drip down his skin, soaking his clothing and making him shiver. His breath was little clouds in front of his face, showing just how chilly it was in the air around him.

“I had promised myself I wouldn’t get close, so I didn’t feel like this…it’s far too late for that now, though, isn’t it…?” he sighed, finally kneeling in the mud before him, not caring about the mess on his pants. The only person that would have cared was in one of the two graves before him now. “Levi….Hanji…” he breathed, getting a little choked up.

There was so much he wanted to say, needed to say, but his words just weren’t coming out. He couldn’t make a sound; too afraid he’d completely break down. Neither of them would have approved of that. Levi would have scolded him, and Hanji…well, she probably would have just teased him about his crocodile tears and would proceed to try cheering him up with facts about titans. She was an odd one. Both of them were, if he was being honest with himself. Which, at this point, there was no reason not to be. They were both near and dear to his heart; a place he had never hoped anyone would reach. He never wanted to feel this kind of pain.

“I loved you both…so dearly…” he breathed, squeezing his eyes closed, tears leaking down his cheeks again. He wiped at them with the softness of his cloak, but more just kept coming. “You were my family. The only family I had.” he added, continuing on, “So strong, so fierce…I never thought this day would come…I thought, surely…I would be the first to go…” his voice grew soft, almost tired. Reaching out, he brushed each of the headstones, giving them one last loving look before pushing himself up to a stand again. Snapping his feet together, right arm to his heart, left arm behind his back, he saluted the stones. A final salute for his fallen comrades, family, friends…

And as he turned and started to walk away, the clouds parted slightly, a ray of sunlight shining down onto the hill where the stones stood together.


End file.
